Search for swing trade alerts and you’ll find hundreds of services, most of them promising some version of “our members are crushing it.” A few are worth paying for. Many aren’t. The trouble is that from the outside they all look the same: a chart with arrows, a win rate, and a testimonial or two.

I run a signal service myself, so take this with that in mind. But these are the same checks I would run on anyone else’s, and they don’t take long. If a service fails more than one or two of them, keep your money.

1. Is there a public, trade-by-trade record?

This is the big one. You want every closed trade, with dates, winners and losers alike, not a highlight reel. Screenshots of great trades prove nothing. Every service has some, and almost nobody posts screenshots of their losers.

If the only evidence is a win rate and a few examples, you can’t tell a real edge from careful editing.

2. Are live results kept separate from back-tests?

Back-tests are useful, and I publish plenty of them, but they’re hypothetical. Ask when the system started sending real signals, and what happened after that date. A service that blends the two without saying where one ends and the other begins is hiding the part that matters.

3. Do they show the worst drawdown, not just the win rate?

A high win rate is easy to manufacture: take small profits quickly and let losers run. The number that tells you whether you could actually stick with a service is the deepest peak-to-valley drop. If a service won’t tell you its worst stretch, assume it was bad. (More on which numbers matter in my backtesting guide.)

4. Are costs included, or at least disclosed?

Commissions, slippage and the gap between the alert price and the price you actually get all eat into results. Some records include them and some don’t. Either can be fine, as long as the service tells you which.

5. Can you actually execute the signals?

Read the fine print on delivery:

  • When do signals arrive? An alert during market hours needs you at a screen. A signal sent the night before can be placed as an order before you go to work.
  • What exactly do they say? A ticker and a direction, or a ticker plus entry, stop and target prices you have to manage yourself?
  • What price does the record use? If the record fills at prices you couldn’t have gotten in real time, its results are better than yours will be.

6. Is it clear how much money it takes?

How many positions does the service hold at once, and how much does each one need? A service built around 20 positions won’t work the same way in a small account. Look for plain guidance on capital and position sizing. (My position size calculator can help you run the numbers.)

7. Can you try it cheaply and cancel easily?

A short, low-cost trial and a cancel button you can find are signs a service expects to keep you on results. Annual-only plans, cancellation by phone, or “lifetime” deals at a big upfront price are the opposite.

8. Who’s behind it, and what are they allowed to do?

Many alert services, mine included, are publishers, not registered investment advisers. That means they send the same signals to everyone and can’t give you personal advice about your situation. That’s fine, as long as they say so plainly. Look for a real name, a way to ask questions, and a history you can check.

Red flags

  • “Guaranteed” returns, or any claim that you can’t lose.
  • A record that shows no losing trades, or no record at all.
  • Pressure to join today: countdown timers, “only 3 spots left.”
  • Alerts on thinly traded penny stocks, where the service’s own buying can move the price.
  • Results that only ever appear as percentages, with no dates or trade list behind them.

How my own service measures up

Since I’m asking you to hold others to this standard, here’s mine:

  • Public record: my Results page has a trade-by-trade table for both systems going back to 2017, when they went live. It lists closed trades only, winners and losers, grouped by year.
  • Costs: that table is price-to-price. It does not include commissions or slippage, and the page says so.
  • Back-test vs. live: the back-tests are labeled as hypothetical and shown separately from the live record.
  • Delivery: signals arrive by email the evening before the trade day. Each one lists the stocks to buy, hold and sell, placed as market orders at the open. If a held stock hits its stop, I send an alert the evening before it sells.
  • Trial and cancelling: the first month is $1, and you can cancel any time from My Account.
  • Status: I’m not a registered investment adviser, and nothing I send is personal advice.

If that sounds like what you’re looking for, here’s how the swing trade alerts work. If not, use this checklist on whoever you’re considering instead.

Educational only; not investment advice. RelaxedTrader is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer. Past performance is not indicative of future results.